Chapter 6 - The Sidewalk Rejection
The cold New York rain began to drizzle down from the leaden sky,
soaking the pavement outside the grand entrance of The Plaza Hotel,
where David was currently standing on the wet concrete,
watching the red and blue lights of a police cruiser fade into the distance.
The hotel management had agreed not to press formal criminal charges against him,
but only after he surrendered his luxury wristwatch,
his designer leather wallet,
and every single expensive souvenir he had purchased for Chloe over the past three weeks as collateral for his unpaid four-thousand-eight-hundred-dollar bill.
Beside him,
Chloe Dupont stood under the canvas awning of a closed coffee shop,
her arms crossed tightly over her chest,
her eyes red from frantic crying,
and her high-heeled shoes dripping wet.
“David,
you promised me that this was going to be a dream vacation,”
she hissed,
her voice trembling with rage,
as she glared at his ruined,
wrinkled suit jacket.
“You told me your wife was an clueless idiot,
you told me she didn’t monitor the banking accounts,
and you swore on your life that we had unlimited access to her family trust fund!”
David wiped his wet hair away from his forehead,
his hands shaking uncontrollably as he tried to pull out his personal phone,
only to remember that the screen had cracked when he dropped it in the hotel lobby.
“Chloe,
please,
just give me a few hours to resolve this,”
he begged,
stepping toward her with open palms.
“It’s a temporary misunderstanding,
Eleanor is just throwing a childish temper tantrum because she saw the boutique charge!”
“A temper tantrum?”
Chloe laughed bitterly,
a harsh,
unforgiving sound that cut through the sound of passing traffic.
“She froze six black cards,
she served you with divorce papers in front of fifty wealthy people,
and she kicked your parents out onto the street!”
“That is not a temper tantrum,
David,
that is an absolute execution!”
Before David could answer,
his phone began to ring,
the buzzing sound vibrating violently against his thigh.
He pulled the shattered phone from his pocket and looked at the caller ID,
seeing his mother’s name flashing across the damaged display.
He pressed the button and brought the phone to his ear,
hoping for a shred of comfort.
“David!”
Teresa’s voice shrieked through the speaker,
so loud that even Chloe could hear every single word.
“David,
where are you!”
“We are standing on the sidewalk in front of Eleanor’s iron gates in the middle of a rainstorm!”
“All of our luggage is sitting in the mud,
the security guards refuse to let us inside,
and the neighbors are staring at us through their high windows!”
David swallowed hard,
feeling a wave of nausea hit him in the stomach.
“Mom,
listen to me,”
David stammered,
turning away from Chloe.
“You need to take a taxi to the SoHo apartment,
I gave you the electronic code last week—”
“There is no electronic code!”
Teresa screamed,
her voice reaching a pitch of pure hysteria.
“The landlord at the SoHo building called Arthur ten minutes ago!”
“He told us that the lease was canceled due to criminal forgery,
the locks have been changed,
and if we show up on the property,
he will have us arrested for criminal trespassing!”
Arthur’s rough voice boomed in the background,
shouting curses at the sky.
“You lied to us,
David!”
Teresa wept openly now,
her arrogance completely gone.
“You told us Eleanor agreed to take care of us for four years!”
“You told us you were going to Japan!”
“Now we are homeless,
soaked to the bone,
and Eleanor sent us a legal notice saying that if we step onto her lawn again,
she will file a restraining order!”
David closed his eyes,
feeling the reality of his ruined life crashing down around his neck like a heavy iron yoke.
“Mom,
I’m coming to get you,”
he whispered weakly.
“With what money,
David?”
Teresa demanded,
her tone turning venomous.
“With what money!”
“Eleanor took everything,
and you gave away our lives for a woman half your age!”
The call went dead,
and David turned back around,
only to see Chloe waving down a yellow taxicab.
“Chloe,
wait!”
he shouted,
running across the sidewalk.
Chloe pulled her diamond ring off her finger,
looked at it for a fraction of a second,
and then threw the velvet box straight into David’s chest.
“Don’t ever call me again,
David,”
she said,
her eyes cold and devoid of any affection.
“The ring is fake anyway,
I checked the appraisal receipt while you were begging the hotel manager.”
“It’s cubic zirconia,
you cheap bastard.”
She slammed the taxi door shut,
the cab sped away into the Manhattan traffic,
May you like
and David was left standing alone in the pouring rain,
clutching a fake diamond in his wet hand.
